What’s Prints? And thoughts connected to them

 I was reading, someone saying

your art is a space made for yourself

I make to feel connected to myself, to process all that stuff we call life and being a person, to connect to my own body.

So much of the time I feel dis-embodied, inert, like I might be a hologram passing a hand through a doorknob, passing through life unaffecting.

Sam realizes Al is a Hologram for the first time, in Quantum Leap, 1989

Making marks, the physical part of making, grounds me.

It may be why I love printmaking: it affords some distance, follows a series of steps, but I can jump off and into my own way of making prints any time I want. When I'm inspired, there's a lot of scribbling, tearing paper, tossing elements together to see what flavors I get, layers, figuring out how many ways I can use simple materials, chasing that magic quality of making you have as a kid. Printing can sometimes feel removed and disjointed, but it’s my entire body that braces, flexes, presses to release the image from screen to paper.

still from a random video on my desktop, showing the prep work of registering paper for a screen print

It’s hurry up and wait,

it’s make 5 images in five minutes before the screen dries,

and it’s sitting in front of the same image for five days to figure out how to move forward.

and in this spirit, a list - a conclusion or a beginning, or a spill of observations and interpolations (my brain served this up fresh, and so: ‘a remark interjected in a conversation’ fits this well). Some thoughts on what you could say in response to,

‘what’s a print (when it’s not a poster)?’

Detail of Sleep Aid Machine, 2019, a silkscreen with monotype crayon elements.

In conclusion: what’s prints

entry points include

• it’s art

• it’s a series of steps

• it’s a way to invite surprise

• it’s a way to put distance between your hand and the work

• it’s a prayer

• it’s a transfer process

• it can be very intentional

• an incantation

• it has a measured slowness, if you’re into that

• it can be super spontaneous, if you’re into that

• a ritual

• it’s a way to see backwards

  • in reverse

  • in the mirror

• it has a reveal moment

• a howl, a yell, or a deep sigh

• it can easily embody themes around the passage of time

• it can elevate the simplest act, mark, or moment by virtue of the process, the intentionality of making

• it encourages sharing

• a rush of dopamine

• it can be shared widely

• it can be precious, if you’re into that

• it can be messy, if you’re into that

• it can be totally slapdash

• it will test you

• it will test you

• it can be an opportunity

• its evidence that I exist, that you do

• it’s just another way to make art

Sleep Aid Machine, 2019, a silkscreen with monotype elements, by Tikva Lantigua